Society's breathtaking hypocrisy over child sex abuse

Joseph Harker cogently makes the point that abuse of children is not culture specific (Time to face up to abuse in the white community, 7 May). What he does not address is why we do not listen to children or learn from abuse "scandals" that have happened in the past. We know that vulnerable children exhibit their problems in their behaviour, but the concern about abuse in children's homes etc does not match our general attitude to troublesome and vulnerable children.

In a society where children hanging around in the street is seen as sign of criminality, and where we prosecute 10-year-olds in formal courts, there is breathtaking hypocrisy shown about these children. We have sympathy for the troubled but punish the troublesome – when are we going to recognise that they are the same children? Perhaps then we can start to do more to prevent the abuse that elicits the shock and horror headlines.Pam HibbertMalvern, Worcestershire

• Joseph Harker makes a valid point about the reporting of sexual abuse, but he has missed the real issue. The perpetrators and their accomplices are mainly men and they have licence to commit sexual abuse because we live in a male-dominated society, where men determine and regulate laws, religion, morals and control all aspects of society.

Until men, themselves, recognise, outlaw and abandon the abuse of those they regard as powerless, it will continue in all its intolerable forms.Diane AndrewesBursledon, Hampshire

• Joseph Harker is being disingenuous. The problem with the grooming of girls by predominantly Pakistani men in northern Britain was that police and social workers turned a blind eye because of the racial angle – they did not want to be accused of racism.

There has been no such reticence in pursuing white males.Richard HortonPurley, Surrey

• Congratulations on Joseph Harker's brilliant article. He expressed my sentiments far better than I ever could, and exposed the stupidity of some people who should have known better when commentating on a recent case of child sex abuse.Roger GuedallaLondon

• Joseph Harker tries desperately to find an equivalence between the white and Muslim child abusers but his reasoning has many obvious flaws.

The most egregious – and one he chooses to ignore – is that as well as being abusers the Muslims were also racists. All their victims were white and, as one Muslim commentator observed, among some Muslim men white girls are regarded as pieces of meat.

Joseph Harker should better investigate how much this attitude is encouraged by the way the Qur'an and some mullahs seek to denigrate the unbelievers.Paul MillerLondon

• Well done, Joseph Harker. What a pity this article, or any of its salient details, won't feature in the Daily Mail.Jackie JacksonHuddersfield